


Kings Of Tragedy

by Something123



Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game)
Genre: Addiction, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Canon-Typical Violence, Cussing, Decisions, Denial of Feelings, Fear, Feels, Nightmares, Other, Past Lives, Psychological Trauma, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Hatred, Team Bonding, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-02-16 11:52:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18690949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Something123/pseuds/Something123
Summary: When you live in a world where it's an endless game of cat and mouse to the death, one usually doesn't take risk in these games, or trials. Yet somehow these survivors constantly take risks, but not as much as these two. Ace Visconti, a gambling man down to his raggedy old soul, who will rely on luck no matter what. David King, a man who uses his experience in fighting people in bars to take damage for other survivors from the killers. These two are experts in their fields, kings you could say, that now live in a world of shambles and mistakes. But, these two need to change, but in what way is unknown...





	1. Calm Before the Storm

When you live in a world where it's an endless game of cat and mouse to the death, one usually doesn't take risk in these games, or trials. Yet somehow these survivors constantly take risks, but not as much as these two. Ace Visconti, a gambling man down to his raggedy old soul, who will rely on luck no matter what. David King, a man who uses his experience in fighting people in bars to take damage for other survivors from the killers. These two are experts in their fields, kings you could say, that now live in a world of shambles and mistakes. But, these two need need to change, but in what way is unknown...

Currently, the survivors Ace Visconti, Dwight Fairfield, Meg Thomas, and Claudette were stuck in a trial against who they called The Wraith. A being that could disappear due to ringing the bell it carried with it, and reappear ready to strike you with a scythe made of a human skull and spine. They were also in its home territory of Autohaven, giving the being a firm grasp of everywhere its prey could possibly hide.

Dwight, the nervous leader of the group,was currently in search of his next objective after having had just completed one with the help of Meg, who had forced him out of his hiding place in the lockers. Not too long in his exploration did he start hearing the thundering sound of his own heart. The killer must've been fastly approaching, probably due to the tracks Dwight left when he first ran. He had already been put up on a meat hook to hang already, not yet struggling against the Entity's deadly spidery-like limbs, so he started quickly sprinting away from the noise. Not a second after he had gotten a safe distance away, out of breath and exhausted, he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. 

Freaking out nervously, he spun around to face whomever decided to touch him, the unknown assailant quickly pressed his hand against Dwight's mouth to possibly advert a crisis. Luckily, as Dwight was able to notice had just been Ace, not so luckily, he was injured, clearly represented by him holding his other arm across his side that was caked with blood. Ace let the younger one calm down before removing his hand from the other's face. The boy was left in a sort of blank stare still processing the information. Then Ace snapped his fingers, clearly wanting the others attention, which basically broke Dwight out of his daze. "Hey Dwight, think you can patch me up?" the man asked drawing in Dwight to remember the situation at stake. "O-Oh right. Sorry," Dwight replied mentally smacking himself for getting his brain stuck in the non-existent clouds in the Entity's world.

Quickly, Dwight brought out some supplies from a medkit he found from searching through a wooden chest and began to patch up his fellow teammate. 

Without any kind of 'thanks' after finishing his patchwork, Ace gestured for the other to follow him. The leader was a little annoyed for receiving no gratitude for his patchwork, but brushed it off when Ace had brought him to an almost finished generator; the last one they needed to get the exit gates powered. Instantly, they hopped on and began repairing the rickety old machine.

As they finished the door sirens blared, but also did the cries of Meg as she was knocked down instantly and quickly put onto one of the many's cold, rusty, and bloody meat hooks.

 

"No one escapes death, fucking knew it!" Ace exclaimed then went down to a mumble impossible for Dwight to comprehend, "Should've worked on those stupid totems."   
No time to waste though, as suddenly the pounding heartbeat of both survivors could be heard again, growing louder by the second. Instantly, Dwight fled into an unknown direction leaving Ace to his own devices. Ace got the memo of what he needed to do quickly and began running in the opposite direction of where Dwight had fled to.

Lady Luck was apparently on his side at the moment because after mere seconds, he stopped hearing his heartbeat blasting in his ears, and through the fog he saw an exit gate just feet away from him.

He booked it, quickly working to power the gate, even with the alarm blaring in his ears. After it had opened, he left, no consideration of his teammates or the man who had healed him. This, sadly, was casual and normal to the rest of the group. This was just how Ace was, a greedy selfish man who only looked out for his own needs, at least how some survivors thought of him as.

The fog had risen around him, then took him back to the campfire that seemed like it would never go out, because… it didn't. 

Back at camp was Jake Park, Feng Min, and David King, talking and gathering supplies from the surrounding area just a bit in the forest, but still visible from the campfire. David doing many of the heavy lifting to pick up things such as fallen branches or scraps of metal either to help the other two, so they could snatch what was underneath, or put it aside as it was in their way. When Mr. Luck appeared, he wasn't noticed immediately, but when he was they shot daggers his way, seeing him so relaxed, grin proudly on display, and alone. With none of the other teammates, they assumed he had ditched them again.

"How is the search going? Anything helpful?" Ace asked, honestly asking, but his tone and attitude said otherwise. "What's it to ya" David replied a stern face heavily displayed across his features. "Just curious," Ace shot back. “Yeah, and I'm curious why you left your team behind, but you don't see me asking,” David spoke, obviously ticked off by the other. “Hey no fair, I asked first,” Ace said grinning widely.

“Fair... FAIR! It isn’t fair that because you have the ability to help the team that you do nothing and basically leave them for dead!” David roared before he felt Feng pull at his arm, and replied in a heavily pissed off tone,” What?!” “Ignore Ace, he'll never change, this is just who he is. But let's get back to work, besides, it'll probably calm you down,” Feng said softly, but sternly towards the man in front of her. With a heavy sigh, David decided to continue helping Jake and Feng get the job done.

After the encounter, Ace determined that the area was now hostile, so he took his leave back towards the campfire to find Claudette back from the trial. She seemed to be in pain and was clutching her stomach, the almost automated response when they were injured. She must've just barely gotten out by the looks of it, but the other two, Meg and Dwight, must've still been in the trial as they had not yet appeared at the campfire.

Ace walked over to a stack of items that they kept for trials and grabbed a rather beaten up medkit. It was going to have to work since they, at the moment, had no other ones. Then he walked up to Claudette and asked if he could patch her up, he was selfish to live for himself in trials, sure, but he wouldn't dream of not helping Claudette through all he has put her through. When he first came to the Entity's world, he was scared beyond belief, but it was Claudette who decided to take it upon herself to deal with him and his… odd personality. For that, he was grateful for. Sometimes when noone was around they'd talk and Ace would let his guard and part of his act down. Somehow the two ended up as friends, even if Ace can be highly annoying to her.

Mr. Luck ushered her to sit so that he can patch her up quickly, rather than her taking longer to patch herself up. “So… you left early again,” Claudette said as more of a statement than anything as she sat down and Ace got to work. The other just nodded, too busy with trying to heal her. “Honestly, I wish you helped out a bit more, but I can't entirely blame you on wanting to get out as fast as possible. The trials are literally bloody games of death of life to the Entity,” she said smiling a bit, “Heck, I used to do the same thing, but after a bit I realized how much the team needs me and stopped.” Mere seconds after, Ace was finished with the wound and looked at Claudette as to imply ‘really?’. The botanist nodded in reply.

“Don't think you are the only one that is afraid Ace, and responds to it oddly, we all are different and deal with fear differently. So don't fall yourself short. Do you even notice, Dwight STILL hides in lockers sometimes during trials instead of contributing,” the female said a soft smile across her features. In reply, Ace’s lips turned to form a similar smile rather than his usual grin.

After that the two just chatted for a moment when all of the sudden the other two arrived back at the campfire. Meg obviously feeling the need to call Ace out on his poor altruistic behavior during the match, but in more ‘hot-headed’ way. "Why the fuck did you not stay to help!" Meg stated furiously, her bitterness clearly evident across her features and tone. "Didn't matter in the end, all of you got out anyways," Ace stated, falling back to a grin and egotistical attitude, knowing that it would tick the other off. "Still! It would be better if you actually paid contribution to the team rather than being a sack-of-flesh during trials," the girl roared furiously. "Welp, I guess it's my time I pay you all adieu to wonder the away, so that there is no possibility of a forest fire to start," Ace said before running to the woods, the angry red-headed girl berating him, but not approaching him, as he left.

David, Jake, and Feng had finished their work and heard the commotion and decided to come back up to the campfire to see what is going on.

 

After a moment of pure silence, Dwight was the one to speak first. "S-So uhm... David what have you found? Anything worth noting?" Dwight asked pointing towards the objects laid on the ground. This caught David off guard, but he quickly adjusted and made a quick reply. "New medkit, I believe, really busted up though, a decent toolbox and a mediocre map," David replied. “That's… fine. G-good work guys on the finds. I'm sure they will be of use eventually,” Dwight muttered back trying not to sound slightly disappointed.

Before long though, the group,was back to the normal small talk at the camp, everyone trying to stay positive and laugh. These times and the slight hopes and possibilities of them getting out of this hellhole is what fueled their determination in trials, it kept them as sane as possible in this world. 

Unlike the rest of the group, who slowly all came together to talk positively, Ace stayed in the woods, trying to find someway to relax and stop an oncoming headache. He often had headaches back in the real world, but they had become much worse since coming to this world; more frequent, more painful. The physical pain was nothing, he could bare it, but reflecting on what he had done to get here has caused him on multiple occasions to become numb. The warmth of the casinos, the burning liquor flowing down his throat, the constant need to be on the run, he missed it all, even if at some times his life was threatened. He'd do anything to go back, maybe make things right, or continue down his messed up path of life. He took off his dark shades to show bags from what looked like years of lack of sleep and glazed over eyes. Looking up at the dark sky, glasses firmly gripped in his hand, he smirked, reminiscing on all the good ol’ times. At the moment and on occasions like this, he couldn't help but wonder if he could ever change. Probably not. 

Meanwhile with David, he couldn't help but wonder why everyone seemed to like him, back in the real world he was hated, feared even. But here? He was appreciated for helping others due to his knowledge of how to get out of tricky situations such as in the trials. Everyone seemed so calm around him, even though he was sometimes a bit harsh, and they knew what he was capable of. At least from what they knew in trials. 

Being new to the trials was something he'd had to adjusted to quickly because otherwise he would've let his whole team die for the first few trials he had been trifled with when he arrived. Everyone was really open and talkative to them, but he kept up his boundaries and barriers, he did not want to care about any of them. He didn't want to be hurt every time they died in the trials, so he emotionally distanced himself.

Since coming here he made a promise to himself, he'd never hurt anyone again, unless, of course, it was the killers. No one knew his past of bar fightings and drunkenness, he didn't want them to fear him now that they had his trust. Most had opened up to him, told their stories to him, informed him of the killers. All except one, Mr. Luck himself, Ace Visconti.

One time, he asked the others if they knew anything about Ace besides that he seemed like a complete and utter asshole that was lucky. No one was ever able to tell him anything, all that they said was the same thing. He talks about how talented he is, but never about what at or what caused him to be lucky. He will admit he was a bit curious about the other, but never publicly. What was this man all about?


	2. Mess

Eventually everyone's luck, strength, brains, charisma, skills, etc. will fail them. It just depends what you do in that situation that can change whether or not you will fail at what you are trying to achieve.

While in the wooded area, and after placing his sunglasses back on, Ace watched the group from afar, trying to get every bit of information he could for later use. Back when he gambled, he used to do this, but for now it was more of a way to hear what everyone was like, especially when he wasn't around. Ace smirked looking at the group, for they looked to actually function as a group of friends or teammates, which was much different from when he was usually by the campfire. 

When he was there, everyone looked annoyed, judgemental, and were talking in hushed tones. Some though, like Claudette, actually talked to him, but not like they do when they are alone. Ace could not be calm or take off his mask in front of the others, they would expect him to act that way always and ask why he ever acted as he does now. He always tried to make a welcoming presence, to make them like him, but... things were different from what they had been in the normal world to say the least. While he used to charm and manipulate others, here he was thought as annoying.

Everyone probably thought of him as some selfish asshole, at least that is what he KNEW they had to be saying about him. As he was listening, he suddenly heard this question posed by what he could only guess as Claudette, by her bright pink shirt, sounding rather worried," Should I check on Ace? He's been out there for a while now."

 

That's when Ace finally realized how long he had been sitting away from the campfire, probably 30 minutes to an hour at this point, he wouldn't know for sure since no one could tell time here. He was about to get up, already putting on his usual smirk, when he heard Meg speak.

"He'll be fine, Claudette. Why should you worry about him anyway? He did leave us in the trial back there, I remember you even running out injured. If you are so worried though, you know he'll come back like he always does, like a lost puppy."

The way she finished it, made him believe she had strong feeling of hatred towards him. This comment by itself made him stop in his tracks and sit back down against the tree he was currently leaning against, just so he didn't prove her right. Then the topic was promptly dropped, like it was never brought up,without any hesitation. Ace, though, could see Claudette continuing to look more and more worried over time. Each time she got more worried, he was tempted to get up and just comfort her, but of course that would be out of character for him and shatter his pride into pieces. So he stayed...

The uneasy and worried expression on Claudette's face, left David feeling as if he should do something. But what? He was repulsed by the man like most were except, Claudette, Dwight, and possibly Jake. Then again Jake just seemed rather apathetic towards everything, expect nature, keeping a calm and cool expression almost always.

"Hey mates, I'm gonna go check on the bloke staying in the woods. I'd rather not have a worried healer in trials," David said, standing up, patting Claudette on the head, and simultaneously trying to brush off that he is just slightly curious as to what's going on with Ace. No one, not even Meg, tried to encourage him to just stay. This was mainly due to the fact that he for one had a point, noone wants the healer to mess up in trials, and that they were just slightly afraid of what would happen if they prevented him from going. He was strong, scarred, and has a rather stern voice, they weren't sure what he'd do if they didn't let him go.

Before he left towards the woods, he heard Claudette give a small mutter of gratitude his way. She seemed much calmer than before, seemingly able to finally relax. He knew they talked a lot and were possible friends, so maybe if he helped her, he would get to know more about the Visconti. Before leaving into the woods, he smiled back in her direction before turning away, into the darkness.

When David finally came upon Ace after a bit of a search, it wasn't in a way he would expect. Ace had his back pressed against one of the dark trees that seemed to be tall enough to touch a cloud, his arms supported by his bent knees; one hand supporting his head, the other clutched so firmly his knuckles were going white. What persisted was that grin, but it was slightly different, seemingly troubled in thoughts. "I really wish I could have some hardcore whiskey right now," Ace quietly stated, unaware of David's presence.

David awkwardly cut in, acting as if he didn't hear that, saying,”Aye Claudette wanted me to check on you. So what are you even doing away from camp? It seems quite depressing and dark out here.”

Ace was caught off guard by David, quickly changing himself back to what everyone knows him to be. A selfish asshole with a shit-eating grin. "Thought I'd pull a Jake today. Still don't see why he likes this thing called 'nature'," Ace shot back facing the man standing over him.

David groaned loudly, knowing this person all to well, and pushing what happened prior to the back of his mind. "Oh shut up, you know you love me," Ace said in reply most likely grinning with his eyes now, but David could not truly know due to the dark sunglasses covering his eyes. “Did you get worried about me too? How sweet~,” Ace half-asked, half-stated in a rather playful manner.

“May you please tell me why I shouldn't punch your lights out right now,” David said obviously annoyed, his expression growing darker and more aggressive. “Because otherwise, you wouldn't make it out alive in trials…?” Ace replied sounding strangely dark, his grin slightly changing.

This was David's breaking point, no-one was allowed to tell him that he was or implied that he was useless, that he needed help from others to pull off the stunts he does in trials. David swiftly picked up the collar of Ace’s shirt and slammed him against the tree he was leaning on. Ace instead of trying to flee or break out of the hold, promptly grabbed his glasses off his face and his hat off his head before tossing them aside, his grey hair clearly evident. David looked at him with a puzzled look. “Didn't want to break them, since you are probably gonna smash my face in,” Ace replied.

The fighter then looked at the man in front of him, his arms showing he won't put up a fight, but that grin was etched into the fighter's mind, and was made worse as it was presented at that moment. He didn't hesitate, not even to look at the other's eyes out of curiosity. David promptly started beating the living daylights out of him, breaking his nose, bruising his face, and blood splattering onto his clenched fist. “Not so much of a hotshot now, are we?” David almost yelled between punches, a wide grin displayed across his face.

David hadn’t felt this alive since back in the normal world, with this much power and control, he just couldn't stop himself. It felt good beating this man, who he thought was a man who felt was better than himself. He felt he was getting justice for the amount of times he had left the group to fend for themselves, for the amount of times he annoyed the living hell out of him and the others. He might've only came to the Entity's world recently, but he knew from experience and the rest of the group, how many times Ace had damaged their performance in trials.

When David finally got tired, he looked at the mess in front of him. Ace's was splattered across the tree, falling out from the older man's nose and mouth and staining his clothes. There were bruises lining his jaw, two for each eye, and some forming along his nose, his jaw also looked slightly crooked. He looked like someone had stepped on him multiple times, tried to disguise him a racoon, and decided to continue beating him with a bat. Still, through the moments he hadn't been coughing up some blood, Ace wore his famous smirk. He looked like he enjoyed it. ‘Sick fuck’ is what David thought, seeing the expression plastered across his face, and it alone almost tempted him to start punching him again.

That's when David returned to his senses. He quickly dropped the man, a loud ‘THUD’ sound eminent as Ace hit the ground. He had promised to himself that he wouldn't get wrapped back up into this life, that he didn't need to hurt others, but help them in this world. Yet, a man who had just slightly ticked him off, got a brutal fate right then and there. He looked to him hands, hands that were now and had been before, caked in blood. His breathing started growing in pace, his teeth gritted, tears started swelling up in the corners of his eyes. He was fully ready to have a mental breakdown with himself right there, but a simple comment from Ace broke him out of it.

”Feel better?” he asked. Despite his voice sounding chalky and seemingly monotone, it was haunting to David.

Once the fighter calmed he noticed that Ace had moved and was now gripping his head, probably from an already happening headache, and reached for his hat that he had discarded earlier. He put it on as soon as he got a grip on it, fastening it on tightly to cover his face, then went to search for his dark sunglasses with a trembling body. Before Ace found them though, David jumped into action and spotted them rather quickly, due to the glint of the moon reflecting off of them, and offered them to Ace. Ace seemed hesitant, probably from his blood on the other's hand and maybe to see if this was a trick, eventually though he took them and replaced them on his face. Ace then replaced his hat into the right position before smirking at the other. David was surprised that he could still do that, after all the damage he assumed he did to the others face, but decided that he might as well smile back. “ Thanks,” Ace muttered, seemingly warmly, and unlike what you'd usually hear from him. It threw David off, but he simply stated trying to bring some kind of humor to the situation,”I thought it was the least I could do for fuckin’ up your face.”

Mr. Luck smirked, “Y'know you've got some fucked up humor right?”

“I guess I do,” the other replied, chuckling slightly.

Before either of them could realize, as they had been focused on their situation at the moment, they were being taken into the fog. It at first crept up on their feet, but quickly built up around them. The last thing that was heard as they were drowned out in the fog was a loud cursing from David.


	3. Tears

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took a bit to come out, I got busy with real life stuff. Enjoy!

Of course what happened next was to be expected, another trial full of murder and gore. What wasn't expected was that there were only two survivors in it, the two Kings of weaseling out of situations, Ace Visconti and David King. The two men who had just been at in a one-sided fight, Ace not putting up any fight, and David not being able to apologize.

When the fog cleared, what was shown became almost immediately noticeable was the corn fields that swayed ever so slightly to a seeming constant, but small breeze. The survivors started on opposite ends of this realm, one starting near the exit gate, while the other near a generator. The one near the generator, David, quickly got to work on it, wanting to quickly out of this mess and back at the campfire. Hoping that he could apologize to the other when they left. Ace on the other hand started searching, looking for anything useful to him for the match such as chests, other survivors, the killer, and generators. Maybe even a medkit to fix up his ‘fucked up face’ as David had stated, or at least some kind of pain reliever to stop the headache and pain from the bruises. 

That's when they both heard it, the terrifying roar of a chainsaw zooming across the realm. 

Both instantly knew that this was none other than the mangled being called by survivors as The Hillbilly, a being that can run as quick as a jet ski in water across the realm and hit down its prey in one quick swoop of its chainsaw. What made it worse was that THIS was its home territory, a land that it basically knew like the back of its hand, knowing all the places survivors could hide or be. They were fucked.

Quickly, Ace started to run away since the noise was growing closer to him, and David remained on the generator, so that he could quickly get it done instead of doing his normal duty of hopping in front of the monsters for his comrades. He didn't feel as though anyone else was there, but he knew Ace had to be here due to the fact they both were drowned in by the fog at the same time. Thinking of this quickly reminded him of what happened prior to the trial, which made him slip up and explode the generator. 

This brought him back to his thought, kind of like a wake up call, and forced him to his feet and barrel out of there, knowing the killer could be there in mere seconds if he weren't chasing someone.

After finding somewhere away from the blown up generator and from the heartbeats, he sighed deeply looking at his hands, they were covered in blood, Ace's to be specific. He broke his promise to himself and it was tearing him up on the inside, but it felt kind of… right? Like he had done good. But he knew he hadn't, he had injured a teammate, one who was now stuck with him here, after he promised himself he wouldn't, after he said he wouldn't go back to his old life. He couldn't think through this right now though because noe was not the time to have an existential crisis. He had to get out of here! With a grunt he quickly started on his feet and found another generator, but there was the one person there he was did not feel like seeing yet. Ace.

Ace had been working on the generator for a bit after he ran from the thought of Hillbilly nearing him, not entirely sure if the killer knew he was there, and found the killer’ shack. That’s when he noticed something in the corner of his eye. Someone, to be more precise, standing in the doorway. There was no thundering heartbeat, so he knew it had to be another survivor, but since he hadn't spotted any earlier he looked up to see who it was. It was David, his face full of tension, fists clenched still having blood on them from prior to the trial. Ace just grinned before continuing on the clunky machine before him, not even seeming to care about what happened in the woods. Just blowing it off as if nothing happened.

David stood there hesitating for a moment, then he noticed the grin towards him, and how Ace wasn't talking. Sadly, he misinterpreted the grin to think that Ace was trying to be competitive. King’s thoughts overflowed with thoughts of such as,’Was he making fun of him… Taunting him?... Was he really doing that here?!… At this point and time!’ 

The man that once hesitated was now filled with the primal urge to do better and get work done around him. ‘If Ace thought of this trial or what happened earlier as a bloody joke, I'll be the one to correct him, show him that I'll get the job done quickly and efficiently. Then I'll wipe that grin off when I’m done.’

The two quickly got the generator up and running, one down, two to go. They knew that the killer would be coming in quickly, so they fled away eager to get away and find a new generator, wanting desperately to get out of this trial.

When they ran, they split up, resorting to working on two generators at once, so that if one gets caught the other could continue to work. Both found generators and immediately got to work.

Meanwhile, the Hillbilly was searching looking for where the survivors had ran off to from the one generator. Though it took him a bit of time, he started hearing the clinking sounds of generator. From the sounds of it, it was nearly finished, so he quickly zoomed in with his chainsaw just barely missing his prey. 

He knew that he needed at least a kill to please the Entity or he would be frowned upon, tormented even. He never had this happen though. He works for the Entity, does its bidding so that he can get rewarded, but he knows it also punishes for bad matches. Less knowledge, items, skills, and if done too many times, pain. He has seen it happen to Philip and does not want the same fate.

As he zoomed in, he was surprised to see the survivor still there, he expected that he'd have to give chase. When the survivor finally noticed his presence, he froze up and started quickly backing away, knowing that he would not make it out of this situation. The Hillbilly, or Max Thompson Jr., quickly enclosed around him, trapping him in a corner between the walls that surrounded the generator. The survivor he saw was one wearing sunglasses, as he once learned, and wore a grin despite his obvious fear. The man accidently knocked off his shades when he put his arms up in a quick motion to try and block the attack. That's when he noticed the dry blood coming from his face and harsh bruising, as if he had been in a bad fight.

It made Max hesitate and just keep the other pressured against the wall with his chainsaw hung high over his head, not powered on. 

‘Why his face messed up?... Was there pain?... Is he like me?... Pain from others?’ Max questioned in his head. The fact he could connect with this victim on some basis, made him hesitate,... maybe he was tortured like he was, harmed like he was, shamed like he was. Maybe he and them weren’t so different.

The man looked nervous, fearful of him, not of his looks but of the power of the saw he had over him it would seem. These thoughts reminded him of the past, what happened throughout his life, and how he ended up here.

He didn't want to be like his father, mercilessly beating someone that looked odd or was already beaten down.

Ace looked up at the figure practically towering over him, who seemed lost in thought and hesitant. Mr. Luck didn't know what to do, but he knew from the situation that it would be best to remain where he was and see what happens. If he dies, oh well, add it to the long board of the amounts of times he had died prior. That's when Ace saw the unthinkable, tears slowly coming out from the creatures eyes, he seemed… sad and pained. Though he knew it was wrong, that it was immoral, that if any found out that he would be hated further by the group, but… he had the thought of asking what was wrong.

Before he could, he heard the blare of a generator, which quickly broke the creature out of its thoughts and start barreling towards the sound. Before he left with the speed of his chainsaw, he looked back at Ace for a glimpse with seemingly mixed emotions.

Ace was confused and dazed by this situation, but for now no further questioning, he had to get out and accept the mercy that came from the enemy. Snapping out of his own thoughts, he grabbed his sunglasses and hopped back on the almost finished generator

But now David was the one with his life on the line.

After the generator was fixed, David started hearing the heavy heartbeat from his chest that always occurred when a killer was nearing closer. He gathered himself and started out in a full on sprint, running in the corn to hopefully get the killer off his trail. He knew Ace had to have been working on a generator by now, so now he would have to work to not get caught, but at the same time keep all of the attention on him. His specialty…

In the distance, Ace could hear the chainsaw roaring to find David, hopeful to get a kill this match. Luckily, the machine was almost up and running, almost ready to power the nearby door to him. Once it was powered, the loud alarm of the exit gates rung, signaling that the gates were now powered. 

Quickly, Ace dashed over to the nearest one and pulled hard down on the lever. The three small alarms went on one by one, but he could quickly hear the footsteps and heartbeat coming his way. The door opened and Ace ran in, just barely so that he could block for David if he needed to, but he did not need to strangely. The killer stopped right outside the gate when David ran through and out of the trial.

The thoughts immediately began to reemerge and caused Ace to want to question the Hillbilly, but before he could they signaled him to follow before he went limping off in some direction. Ace hesitated, but do to the mercy he was shown and curiosity, he decided to follow.

The killer led him to a nearby chest and stood next to it, waiting for the other it would seem. Ace was confused and it was evident by his face, so the Hillbilly decided to make it more obvious by hitting the chest with his hammer. “You… want me to open it?” Ace asked the creature, who nodded in response. “Will you… hook me if I do?” the man questioned, and this time, received a shake from the Hillbilly’s head, signaling a ‘no’ in response. Ace slowly walked up to it and opened it, then begin to scavenge through its contents, the killer watching his every movement and making his heart race. 

Once he found an item he picked it up, it was medkit, one that was of rather high-quality. He was happy, maybe there was something that could help him in it. He looked up towards the killer and gave a soft smile instead of his usual smirk or grin, before saying,”...Thank you.” Ace never thought he'd say that line in his life, much less to a killer, but he was appreciative. The Hillbilly did what only Ace could assume was an attempt of a smile from his face, though it looked creepy due to his deformities. He still appreciated the attempt though.

The two then started back towards the exit gate, in a rather surprisingly calm silence, well as calm as it could possibly. Once they both arrived, Ace looked towards the other, still a little unnerved”... Well is guess this is goodbye until the next trial. It was nice.” Ace then held out his hand towards the other, but the killer seemed confused by the gesture, seemingly not knowing what it is. Just as Ace was about to retract feeling embarrassed the killer grabbed Ace's hand and interlocked it with his own and shook just a bit too violently. The mangled man's hand felt rough like sandpaper, but at the same time leathery.

After the violent handshake, Ace proceeded to go through the exit gate to arrive back at camp. But it was different…

There was a campfire, like normal, but no one was there. No one except David. The wooded areas looked different, there were now dirt paths leading down to unknown areas. But, what threw both of them off, was the eerie feeling of being watched, like as if there was something watching them from within the wooded area…


	4. Cleaning Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoy the previous updated chapters and enjoy this one. Sorry it took so long to come out.

After Ace arrived in the uncharted area, David went up to Ace, fear quickly turning to anger in his eyes. “What did you do?!” David spoke, anger seething through his his gritted teeth. Ace, clearly confused, shot back,”What made you think I had anything to do with this?!” 

“Because you are unpredictable like that! Also, I know sure as hell, I didn't cause this! It would also be the perfect explain as to why it took you forever to leave the trial!” David shot back, anticipating no comeback, but prepared for a fight if one ensues. “Sorry jackass!” Ace basically outbursts, raising his medkit that he got with the allowance of the Hillbilly, and throwing it to the ground in front of them,”I thought the camp needed more medkits!”

David looked at the medkit that sat on the rather moist and dirty ground in between them. He never would've guessed that Ace would try to do something like that, due to the fact he seemed rather apathetic towards the others, so he was a bit taken aback. Looking closer at the medkit, he noticed that it was also better than anything they had back at camp currently, so it would've been of great use to the survivors in trials. Instead of apologizing, though, David continued, not wanting to back down,”... That still doesn't explain why we are here, though.”

There was a pause of silence, Ace looked down at his shoes, and a breeze running between them. All was quiet until Ace looked back up at David, dead in the eyes, and spoke.

“Nothing in this world can be explained David,” Ace said, his voice going cold and grim, along with a soft shrug of his shoulders,”After all, he are just toys in the Entity's world.” This voice, he had heard it back after they fought, the one that make his blood run cold. The fighter shivered, not knowing the person in front of him. In all honesty, this part of Ace…, no this stranger, scared him more than the killers that murdered them mercilessly over and over.

With a heavy sigh, David just stopped talking all together, feeling it would be best if nothing came out of his trap. He looked at Ace for a few moments, Ace's grin quickly returning to his features, face still bloody and heavily bruised. What made it worse was that it felt as if Ace was staring deep into his soul. Trying to do anything besides look at Ace, the fighter knelt down onto the ground to pick up the medkit up and sat, wanting to see the contents inside.

In it, he found a bunch of wet cleaning wipes, bandages, and the most surprising to him was some pain medicine. There was also some other items that he would need a personal Claudette to inform him of what they are and their uses. Then again, he would’ve preferred if Claudette was here with him, though honestly anyone besides Ace would’ve been better. This strange man was already driving him crazy. 

Thinking of Ace, he looked back up at the other man who was throwing rocks at trees to, only David could assume, to pass the time. After throwing a rather big rock and watching as it shattered, Ace could the gaze on him, catching David's gaze, and giving a small wave. Then he decided to continue throwing rocks at trees. David decided to stop looking at Ace and returned back to looking at the medkit. ‘Ok. Something is seriously wrong with this man...’David thought, confused. The fighter looked at the medkit, back at Ace, and finally back to the medkit. While doing this, he got an idea, one that could make it up to Ace, showing that he means that he is truly sorry for for the pain he has caused his teammate.

“Ace!” David yelled out. Catching the gambler’s attention, the brute then signaled Ace to come over towards him and sit, both of which Ace followed, still clearly confused as to why he was called over. As he sat, David didn't explain anything, but instead started searching for the wipes he saw earlier in the medkit. “Are you suddenly mute or something David?” Ace asked, his tone matching his features. David gave no reply.

Instead David proceeded to open up one of the small packets of wipes, took the wipe out of its packaging, and, without asking, went to wipe off the dried blood from Ace's face. Ace was confused, but before he could object, David was holding his head in place, firmly, and wiping off the red fluid from his face. In a fearful response from the sudden lack communication and confusion, Ace tried to push David off of him. Of course it didn't work, Ace was, after all, basically a twig compared to David in strength. After a few attempts of trying to get out of the deathly grip of the brute, Ace just decided to let this happen and stop struggling.

Through it all, Ace could feel his vulnerable and fragile pride cracking.

And though it took a couple wipes to clean up Ace's face, David was able to clean up all the blood on the older man's face and some that got onto his neck. David tried to be positive, thinking about how Ace looked… better, but who was he trying to kid, Ace still looked bruised to all hell and back. Sadly, there was nothing he could do about the bruising, due to the lack of supplies on hand and in this realm. David sighed, deeply lost in thought of how he could make this better, until he remembered the medication for pain relief from earlier. 

Eagerly, he rummaged through the supplies in the small red container, quickly finding the medicine after searching under some empty packets of wipes.

He picked up the small bottle and looked at the sticker running around it. “PAIN BEGONE” it stated in bold letters making David chuckle a bit. Not wanting to waste anytime, he then began to search around the bottle’s sticker, hoping to find any information about how many tablets he should give Ace, but it stated nothing. Great…

Ace looked as the other fumbled with the bottle, possibly looking for information to help Ace, he was new to the Entity’ world after all. The gambler wondered why David was suddenly being nice, maybe to sort of apologize, but it still seemed odd to him. David to him, he decided to compare to a spicy pepper. Like one, he could be painful and aggressive if at high extremities. And while in low to moderate extremities, could be interesting and add a new mix to the group. After a bit of thinking and watching David look anxiously, Ace decided to help out the other by tapping on his shoulder, and snatching the bottle out of the fighter's hands. 

Before David could object, he realized that Ace probably knew more than he did about this sort of thing, and stopped himself. “Listen hard and listen well,” Ace said, drawing in David's attention quickly,”When you take this kind of medicine, only take two. No more, no less.” David then nodded, showing he understood. 

Ace grinned. Then he promptly took out two pills from the half full pill bottle, laid them into his hand, and popped them in his mouth. No complaining about having no water to drink down the pills in the Entity's world, well unless you took them in the new realm of The Huntress, but then why would anyone be taking pills there.

Without another word, Ace packed back up the medkit with David helping him out, trying to organize it as Claudette has lectured him to do, picked up the medkit along with himself, and pulled David to his feet. “You said it earlier. We don't know where we are,” Ace said, letting go of David's hand, and seemingly grinning wider than before,” So I think we best go exploring. Don't you think?”

David at first seemed hesitant, but the adrenaline rush of a new challenge, pulled him to his final decision. “Well then,” David said looking around at the 8 different dirt paths that surrounded them,”Which one first…”


	5. "What's your business here?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to thank all of you beautiful people for 150+ hits on this story! Thanks so much for reading my horrid mosh pit of a story. I hope you like the chapter though it is not reread and edited. Thanks again!

They looked at the many paths, seeing which one seemed the best to go down, but before either of them could think, the trees near them started shuffling and loud cawing screeched out. Both looked up, anxious as to what was happening, or what might be coming.

When they looked up, they saw what looked to be thousands of crows rising out of a small section of wooded area between two of the pathways. The sky, that had already been largely dark, had all remaining light in the section sucked out and replaced with thousands of small eyes. Those small eyes looked down on the two, almost hungrily, causing fear to erupt in both Ace’s and David's minds. David responded to the fear with anger,”What'cha looking at?! Want a piece of me?! Well come and get it!”

Ace quickly snapped out of his fearful thoughts with these words, quickly hopping onto David, which caused them both to fall the ground, and covering his mouth, but the deed was done. The birds looked pissed, even if Ace couldn't tell their emotions, they just seemed as such. Before they knew it, the birds were swooping down, straight at them.

David reacted quickly, sitting up, and tackling Ace to the ground; basically pinning him to the ground with David on top. He made the mistake, he would take the blame, at least that is what David was hoping would make up for the situation. In mere seconds, the birds swooped onto David, clawing and biting him. The whole time, through the pain they were causing him, he gritted his teeth and held Ace close to his chest. The birds slowly ripped through his jacket, then his shirt, straight to his bare skin, while others nipped at his legs. One lonely bird, though, started going for his face, but saw another person beneath David and started towards him.

But, before the crow could attack Ace, David quickly grabbed it by its throat, holding it firmly, so that it could not go free. The lone one started pecking and clawing at David's hand, desperate to be released, but instead came a cracking sound and the bird went limp in his hand. The other birds heard it and looked at the now dead bird in David's bare hands, and, most likely in fear, stopped and started flying off into the woods somewhere.

Once David was sure each of them left, he slowly rose into a sitting position from being on top of Ace, and looked at the bird still in his hand. ‘Great. More blood on my hands, just what I need,’ he thought, his tone highly hinting towards sarcasm. Ace rose up too and went to touch his head, the feeling of a headache coming on, when he suddenly stopped in his tracks. His hat was not on his head, he assumed it fell off during the fall to the ground, but where was it then? Ace rose to his feet, still shaking in shock, and looked for his iconic hat. Quickly, he found it, though it was in worse condition than before. Small scraps of the fabric, along the bill of the hat, were gone, but it still looked fine. Ace rose it to on top of his head, placed it on, and adjusted it accordingly. His grin slowly rising back to his features due to from the fear it had dropped, but something was off, it looked a bit pained.

“Aw, goddammit! They got me scraped up bad!” David said, catching Ace's attention, his face looking pained. Ace observed the other man's condition for a split second before he ran over, fresh blood was caking David's hand as he tried putting pressure on the wounds. Ace, a bit painicked, quickly instructed David to remove his upper clothing, to which David complied worriedly, the then used the ripped fabrics to help stop the bleeding and held them onto David's back. David grunted, the fabric having a burning and painful feeling on his back. “Keep this here,” Ace said suggesting towards the fabrics and growing cold,”I'm gonna get stuff for your wounds, but you need to keep these on your back no matter the pain. Understand?” David in reply nodded.

Ace opened up the medkit, that surprisingly he was able to hold onto during the whole ordeal, and frantically searched through it. ‘What do I need?! What do I need?!’ Ace thought, panic scattering his brain. That's when he remembered when Claudette was teaching him how to do this. Replaying the memory in his mind, he grabbed out the necessary tools needed. Though, it was surprising to see that it had EXACTLY what he needed, including a bottle of water.

Ace opened up the bottle of water, sighed, and went up behind David. “David,” Ace's voice cold, catching David's attention and sending shivers down his spine,” Please remove the fabrics of clothing.” David complied, dropping his bloody clothes to the ground, curious as to what was about to happen. “Now, this is going to burn. Scream and shout as much as you'd like, but just know that I'm trying to help,” Ace spoke, sighing in deeply, before continuing.

That's when David felt as though millions of fire ants had bit him multiple times. The pain was brutal and immense, but still David held on, not yelling or screaming. Instead, gritting his teeth to the point he thought he'd chip one of them. Soon enough though, it calmed down, and he himself did too. Then he heard those dreaded words, knowing his pain was going to continue…

“Now, it's time to bandage you up,” Ace said, some of his usual self shining through, but still the words were daunting.

Before David could say anything, Ace started bandaging his chest. The gambler instructed the fighter to raise his arms up or he'll be a mummy, so David decided to that it would be best not to be a dead being enrolled in tissue and raised his arms.

After finishing, Ace began to pack the supplies into the medkit and pick up David's bloody clothing. On the other hand, David felt a bit humiliated due to needing Ace's help to fix his own mistake. When the gambler got to his feet, along with everything in his arms, he offered a hand down to David with a large grin on his face. David instead blew him off and got up on his own, his body still in pain. 

“Do you want any pain begone?” Ace asked, sounding concerned with David's current condition. Once again, he blew the other off, stating that ‘he’d be fine without it’. Ace, though still worried, decided to drop the topic. Ace was always good at reading body language, so he could tell David was tense and not in the mood for much talking.

“Well,” Ace said, grinning and chuckling a bit to himself,”Guess our adventure may finally begin.” David just sighed and nodded. Instead of waiting for anything, Ace grabbed David's wrist and started down one of the dirt paths with him in tow.

The fog blocked their field of vision around them when they entered onto the dirt path, but due to Ace's firm grip on David's wrist, they didn't lose each other. “Hey David,” the gambler said, his voice gaining David's attention. “What?” David replied, his voice still sounding rather aggressive. “I see something in the distance, looks like pieces of scrap metal,” Ace replied back,”So maybe we are near some kind of building, at least.” Mr. Luck didn't expect a response, but the one he got was from a much calmer brute.

“Neato,” is what simply came out of his mouth.

Both of them could now clearly see the sharp and dangerous looking scraps of metal and the outline of a building just up ahead of them. When they arrived at said building, the fog seemed to clear a bit at a rapid pace, allowing the two of them to see what lies ahead and each other. What they saw, shocked both of them.

What laid ahead was the MacMillan Estate, in all of its terrifying and creaking glory. Except unlike with the trials is that there was an opening in the red brick walls that surrounded the entire domain. David quickly getting frightened, of course, but Ace… seemed excited?! To him, instead of the dangerous place he saw in the trials, he could only think of the possible loot that could be inside. Stuff that could help them, help David in his recovery.

David on the other hand was confused by Ace's behavior, they've been killed countless times here, so many noone counts. When Ace stepped forward, David sprung into action and held Ace back. “What are you doing?! Have a death wish, or something?!” David asked, panic in his eyes, looking Ace dead in his still bruised face, his hands holding Ace's shoulders. 

“Please hold these and get out of here,” Ace said, his voice going cold and grin faltering. Ace then took David's hands and gave him the items he had been carrying. “I'm going to go search for supplies. Who knows what's in there, David,” Ace said casually.

Before David could object, Ace went dashing into the fog that remained in the area. David sighed, this was going to be challenging, especially with the amount of pain in his body and injuries. But once again the thought of a challenge fueled him, adrenaline rush coursing through his veins. So, with a cocky smile, items still in hand, David ran head first after Ace. He would come to regret that decision because as soon as he spotted Ace, it was a different picture than he thought.

Mr. Luck was being held up in the air by an unknown dark figure. Swiftly, the breeze pushed the fog away to reveal who was holding the gambler up in the sky. It was… the Trapper, in all of his glory. Smiling mask grinning up at Ace as he struggled. Then Ace noticed David at the corner of his vision and looked towards him, the Trapper noticed his eyes cock to the right and followed his line of sight. There he saw David, gawking at him in pure and utter shock, but once the killer noticed him, David started running away.

The killer, still holding Ace in one large hand, gave chase. His hulking figure and loud footsteps making David's heartbeat race like it did in trials. Not being able to see through the fog to the walls, David made a wrong turn and ended up in a corner along the wall. The fighter thought of running back, but it was too late, the Trapper had David pinned against the wall. The Trapper then picked up David by his waist, but did not throw the survivor over his shoulder, instead holding him against his arm and body. David quickly began thrashing, trying to get free from the larger man's grasps, but failed in doing so. Then David's blood ran cold and he stopped fighting when he heard only what he could assume was the killer speaking.

In a haunting, gruff, and stern voice came the seemingly cold words of,” What's your business here?” from the killer.


	6. Mercy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the long hiatus, I lost motivation and want to do anything, mainly from life and such. I know it is no excuse, but I hope you still enjoy the chapters.

 The two men that were at full mercy to the killer, due to them being unaware of their surroundings or lack of perks to help them, so they froze. At first they had no intent answer the hulking beast, known as the Trapper to them, but the beast soon started to harden and tighten his grip. Both frantically started clawing and gasping for air as they felt like their bones were going to crack. It was David who answered first, though his voice was clearly painicked and the need for the gasps of air made it harder to speak.

 "W-we… don't know. Fu...fucker in… the sky… p-probably," David spat out. The Trapper shifted his stance, acknowledging the words, and loosened his grip on the two so that all they could do was breathe, not escape. Both men gasped excessively, their lungs taking in as much of the polluted areas air as humanly possible.

 The killer looked back at the fighter, clearly wanting him to elaborate, but not hesitating to squeeze them both half to death again if he got no answer. After inhaling, David continued, clearly not wanting to be breathless again,"We just arrived in the middle of fuck, who knows where! That then led to many trails, which we decided this one was the best! But clearly, we were bloody fucking wrong! Because we came across you bastard!"

 The Trapper was ticked from David's comments, he swiftly dropped Ace, who dropped down with a thud and groan from the man, and picked up David by his throat and slammed him into the wall. The loud thud seemed to scare some nearby crows, who cawed and flew off further away. The burning of his back from the bandages and applied force made David whence in pain, but stopped from yelling, not wanting to give the Trapper the satisfaction from seeing him in pain. The beast quickly put his boot on top of Ace, digging it in a bit, trying to keep the man down for a while.

 The Trapper spoke once more, his voice as stern and gruff as before, eyes deadlocked on David. "Listen here, and listen well. This is MY domain, so you have to follow MY rules. If you don't cut the bullshit, I won't mind killing you, or your friend here, right here, right now," the beast said, clearly not joking.

 The fighter glared at the killer, his face twisted with rage, but spoke in a voice unlike any of what his body expression was saying. "What do you want from us?" David said behind clenched teeth flatly. 

 "I would prefer you to leave or to kill you right here, but I have a feeling that the Entity would not take kindly to the latter, nor that the former could happen," the Trapper replied, clearly unhappy with the predicaments before him," I also doubt that you can go down any of those other trails, fucker probably blocked them off, so you're stuck with me."

_ Great.  _ David thought.  _ Now I have to deal with two assholes. _

 "Can you  _ at least _ let me down?" David asked, clearly wanting to be out of this situation as soon as possible. But, the killer didn't budge, instead he spoke again. 

 "No… because we need to establish ground rules, thanks to asshole up in the sky," the Trapper said, glaring upwards for only a moment. "No touching anything (unless stated otherwise), no destroying my traps, no asking for any kind of help with anything (not even if what you need help with is from me) and you will follow all orders or instructions given to you. Got that?" the Trapper stated, applying a heavier force against the smaller male's throat. David nodded his head, not being able to form words due to a lack of oxygen, and being rewarded by the hand being taken away from his throat all together. This caused him to crash down to the ground, but quickly he picked himself up, his body aching in pain, but quickly moved away from the front of the beast. 

 The Trapper decided to acknowledge the man below him and picked him up in a swift motion, right up to his masked face that bared its teeth, and repeated the rules again to the lucky charm. Ace nodded, like David did, and was set loose. 

 The two survivors grouped back together, kind of huddling together for warmth and comfort, but still keeping their chins up. The killer turned around eerily towards the two and stared down at them, their eyes gazing up back at him.

 All of them were trapped in thought as they stared at one another. David thinking about how he'd now have to deal with two assholes (again), Ace's thoughts towards the past and survival between two people with cases of  violence, but the Trapper's were odd. 

  
_ This...  _ He thought.  _ Will be quite interesting… _


	7. Come back soon

_ Dammit, dammit, dammit! Claudette get yourself together! This is a trial, you can't start worrying about where the hell David and Ace are!  _

 It has been a while since anyone has seen the two, though the were WAY more worried for the survivor named David. After all, he was nice, fairly good-looking, and was amazing to have during trials, while Ace was just an asshole to everyone and everything. Though Claudette knew Ace was different than these accusations, everyone else only saw the stubborn and egotistical outer shell the Argentinean had, they took him at face value and not cared to know more about him. Some were even excited that he was gone…

 The young Canadian was pulled out of her thoughts when she spotted a generator, with a friendly Dwight already working on it. He looked tense, all nerves on edge, as per usual for him in the trials. Claudette bent down on one knee and worked on the section directly across from Dwight of the machine, twisting and pulling this and that. This was the last generator of the trial, one survivor was already sacrificed, and Dwight and another already being hooked once. The stakes were high, anxiety and adrenaline was coursing through everyone's veins.

 And apparently they were too much to bare for Dwight as the generator busted up in sparks. Not even a few seconds past, as they had decided to stay at the machine, before their hearts started racing and heavy footfalls could be heard.

_  Well fuck. _

 The two survivors scrammed from the area, intent to get as far away from the oncoming predator as humanly possible. But because of the rush, Claudette ran face first straight into the cement wall that stood as barriers for them against the killers. For right now though, it acted as a way to harm her. 

 She fell backwards onto the slightly muddy soil beneath her, then opened her eyes. Upon opening them, the botanist could see the remnants of her glasses, that hung from one of her ears. The footsteps were approaching closer. Without a second thought on the pain in her face or the fact that her vision was now hindered, she bolted. 

 Claudette kept her head down, trying to grip on whatever she could possibly see. Despite the one lense that still was available to use, she opted to ditch the glasses because they were swinging all about in front of her. The botanist jerked the glasses off her face and threw them down into the soil, the killer later stepping on them.

 Claudette started looping the killer around a pallet and window (to her own surprise), in hopes that she could buy time for her teammates to finish the last generator, so they could book it out of there. The killer soon started outsmarting her though and landed a hit to her shoulder, earning a yell out of the Canadian that rang throughout the area. 

 Dwight Fairfield, the fearful leader of their group (that did his best to keep everyone together), was currently running in a panicked frenzy across the land of their trial. He kept his eyes open in the hope of just finding a generator and getting out of here as soon as possible, but before he could find something, something caught his shoulder and pulled him backwards, causing him to fall to the ground. Startled, he looked up, to find… Jake Park.

_ Thank goodness.  _ Dwight thought, giving out a sigh of relief.

 Jake offered a hand down to his teammate, who he unintentionally made fall to the ground, and was pleased when the other took his hand. When they were both to their feet, Jake pulled Dwight towards something, unknown to Dwight what it was.

 "H-hey Jake, where are w-we going, buddy?" Dwight asked nervously. No reply.

_ Typical Jake.  _ Dwight thought.

 To the leader's relief, Jake had led him to a generator that was already most of the way done. Not thinking twice, the duo hurried over to it and worked to get it finished, when they heard Claudette's screech.

 Both of their minds started to purely focus on the machine ahead of them, urgently trying to get out of here before another one was sacrificed. 

 Meanwhile, with Claudette, things were cutting down to the wire, when she heard it. The loud blare of the final generator and the doors being powered, just needing to be turned on to open. Hope and adrenaline flooded through her veins, causing her to have a short burst of energy, which she used to start heading to the farthest door from her current location. The killer was left in the dust.

 Running around and through obstacles, Claudette fled, not wanting to look back or worry about anything else. Her injuries no longer mattered, her thoughts didn't matter; all that mattered was getting to that door and getting out as quickly as possible. Getting there though was difficult, especially without her glasses to aid her vision, but still she treaded onwards, her head running with thoughts of hope.

 To her delightful surprise, both Dwight and Jake were already at the door, getting it ready to open up. The botanist was so happy in fact, that she almost crash landed into Jake, who was standing beside Dwight (who held the lever down to open up the metal door up). Quickly, Claudette apologized for basically rushing Jake, who seemed minorly ticked off but soon let the anger flow past him.

 The Canadian tried her best to focus on the two, but was having difficulties pointing out their details too well, so she squinted. The loner, stifled a chuckle and grin at girl's face, trying his best to look like his normal stoic self. At this, Dwight lightly slapped him, understanding his female teammate's issue just a bit too personally.

 The footsteps returned as with the roaring heartbeat that rang in their ears.

 Luckily for them, the door opened almost instantly afterwards, all of them quickly rushed in. Both Dwight and Jake ran straight through without a second thought, but Claudette remained, wanting to 'see' who the killer was before she left. When the small and dark form emerged in her vision, she knew instantly, it was the Hag, though they hadn't used their teleportation for some reason unknown.

 Claudette then ran through the door fully and felt herself return back the campfire, her glasses reformed back onto her face to her relief, as she came back to sit on a log next to the never-ending flame. She gazed into the fire as her vision slowly returned back to her, the smell of burning wood and light crackling calmed her down from the high tensions of before, letting out a sigh of relief.

 Everyone around the botanist seemed joyous, though still down from David's disappearance, which caused her to think back to Ace. He wasn't a bad person, she knew that, but everyone else thought so.

 " _ Claudette? Hey Claudette? What's wrong?" the familiar voice asked. The botanist's head hung low, her face wet with tears, her glasses propped up on her forehead. "I…" Claudette croaked, her voice hoarse from crying,"I don't want to talk about it." _

_  Ace shifted in his position to sit in front of the younger girl and propped his head up on his hand, facing the one next to him. "And… that's alright," the gambler started," There's no need to talk unless you want to." _

_  Claudette was frozen in shock at the sincerity in the man's voice, after all, he was just an asshole… right?  _

_  The Canadian shifted to look at the man before her, who seemed off from his usual self. The grin was still there, but seemed more… pained if she could put it right. His body language showed that he was worried to some degree. _

_  Upon seeing Claudette's face perk up, his grin returned back to normal, possibly happier. Ace bent his head downwards, his hand on his hat which he removed, before leaning back upwards. He reached his hand into the hat and pulled out a pack of cards, slightly old and bent, but was still in one piece. He opened the box and pulled out all of the cards before proceeding to shuffle them at an almost impossibly fast rate. _

_  Claudette was thrown for a loop. Firstly. She thought. How is he doing that, that quickly? What is the purpose of the cards? _

_  During her thought, Ace had spread out the cards into a fan-like shape, facing towards the ground. He then thrusted them in front of her, like a magician would in a show. The botanist looked at the gambler puzzled. _

_  "Pick a card," Ace said. Claudette was still puzzled, questioning why he was doing this when she was clearly upset. "Oh, c'mon," the man started, "If not for you, then for my amusement at least." _

_  Claudette sighed, but still decided to play along with Ace's request, pulling out a card from the one's before her. She looked at the card to see the queen of spades and awaited further instructions. _

_  "Now put the card back in any part of the deck," the Argentinean said extending out the deck, the Canadian followed the instructions. Ace, once again, shuffled the deck at a terrifyingly rapid pace before stopping. _

_  "Now pick up my hat and tell me what card it is that you see. Also if it is your card, " the man instructed. Claudette picked up the hat and read the card back to Ace. _

_  "It's an ace of spades, but no… this is not my card," she said. _

_  "Well that's because the item that the card was under holds meaning to me. So of course, it's an ace, like yours truly," the gambler replied back. The cards now in the dirt as he struck a pose. _

_  Claudette snickered. And Ace continued," But if you were to look closer at something on you. You'd find your card. Check your pocket."  _

_  Claudette checked to her pocket, obviously knowing nothing was there, but was shocked when she felt what she thought could only be a card. She pulled it out to look at it to find… _

_  The queen of spades. _

_  "That your card?" Ace asked. Claudette nodded, contemplating her reality, and handing the card to the card shuffler. _

_  " Now, the reason you have a queen is because many look to you for support and guidance. Not wanting to disappoint them, you help. Just like a queen to her people, you are helpful to the team," the man said, sincerity laced in his voice. _

_  Claudette looked to him to see not a grin anymore, but rather a soft smile, a very unusual sight. Almost bewildering. But the words, seemed to put it through to her, and made her start crying again. Ace's face was full of concern for the girl, and was thrown off when she lunged at him in a hug. _

_  Confused and shocked, but accepting the gesture, the man hugged her back. "T-thank you," Claudette said, her voice cracking, "I really needed that." Ace chuckled a bit,"Yeah, ...no problem." _

 "Claudette! Wake up, we are trying to talk to you," the familiar voice of Meg Thomas said, waking up the sleeping botanist. She woke up and talked with the group for a bit before dipping out of the conversation to the woods.

 She sat down with a sigh, and pulled out a card from her pocket; it being the queen of spades, which Ace had given her back afterwards so that she didn't forget the memory whenever she was upset. Tears started forming in the corners of her eyes as she held the card to her chest and looked up towards the sky.

_ Come back soon.  _ She thought, meaning towards both of those who were absent. 

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to here your guys' thoughts and comments about this story, incase it isn't all that good. Please be nice to everyone reading or commenting. Thanks!


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